GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES,STRATEGIC SAVINGS,AND THE DOT‐COM BOOM AND BUST

Data from the dot‐com boom‐bust episode suggest that growth opportunities played an important role in explaining firms' financing strategy during this understudied episode. The low leverage of this sector was mainly driven by high growth firms which increased their leverage following the crash despite suffering a much larger fall in their market value. We present a parsimonious dynamic firm financing model where growth opportunities alone can generate the heterogeneous patterns in the financing and performance between high and low growth information technology firms prior to and following the market crash. The calibrated model also sheds light on the role played by monetary policy during that episode. (JEL G32, E22, E5)     

An Inductive Analysis of Young Adults’ Conceptions of Femininity and Masculinity and Comparison to Established Gender Inventories

This study provides an analysis of the content of feminine and masculine characteristics/behaviors described in writing by 366 young women and 289 young men from the U.S. Emergent characteristics/behaviors were placed into domains. For both femininity and masculinity, the domains of “physical differences related to sex” and “emphasized physical differences” emerged. For masculinity, additional domains were: “activities and interests focused on the body,” “powerful or oriented toward power,” and “emotion-control or emotionally-limited.” For femininity, additional domains were “lacking power,” “orientation to other people,” and “emotional.” We then compared the characteristics/behaviors and domains we discovered to gender inventories that are commonly used in the contemporary period. The masculine domains focused on physical differences, activities, and interests that emerged from the present study are mostly absent from these masculinity inventories. The domains focused on power and restricted emotion are evident in these inventories, but these inventories do not cover all of the characteristics within our domains. The feminine domains that emerged from the present study are more often covered in these inventories, but some of the specific feminine characteristics we found are not evident in these inventories. Results are discussed in terms of gender role theory, gender inequality, and potential application for qualitative and quantitative inquiries into the construction of gender.     

Organizational Identity and Philanthropic Institutions

This article proposes a framework for viewing the behavior of philanthropic institutions through the lens of organizational identity via semi‐structured interviews with twenty‐seven grantmakers representing seventeen foundations, along with content analyses of these foundations’ public documents. This empirical investigation revealed three identity profiles: agenda setter, supporter, and community builder, which capture distinct patterns in foundation strategy, operational structure, and grantmaking practices. For theory, these findings provide an alternative to the conventional view of foundation behavior along an active to passive continuum to one that suggests a role for organizational identity. For practitioners (grantmakers and grantseekers), this perspective demonstrates that there are multiple pathways through which foundations create social value, not just one definition of “best practices.” Understanding these different perspectives on social value creation can help grantmakers identify internal inconsistencies in their strategies and operations and can help grantseekers identify foundations most likely to fund their work. The article concludes with suggestions for further research to explore the extent to which this framework can advance understanding of institutional philanthropy as the field moves to challenge traditional boundaries between nonprofit foundations and private social change initiatives.     

Do Migrant Remittances Cause Dutch Disease in Nigeria?

Statistics show that remittances inflow to Nigeria grew from US$3,000,000 in 1978 to over US$22 billion in 2017. Theoretically, such a large inflow of foreign currency into an economy may lead to Dutch diseases. This study, therefore, investigated whether the massive inflow of remittances into the economy causes Dutch disease. Given that the model had both I(0) and I(1) variables, ARDL/Bound testing methodology was used with annual data from 1981 to 2016. The ARDL result showed that migrant remittances have a significant positive effect on the real effective exchange rate in Nigeria in the long run. Specifically, a one per cent increase in the inflows of remittances increases the real effective exchange rate of Naira by 0.44 per cent in the long run. This appreciation of the Nigerian Naira relative to other competing nations encourages import and discourages export, leading to the Dutch disease effect.     

Analysis of functional status transitions by using a semi-Markov process model in the presence of left-censored spells

Summary.  To analyse functional status transitions in the older population better, we fit a semi-Markov process model to data from the 1992–2002 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey. We used an analogue of the stochastic EM algorithm to address the problem of left censoring of spells in longitudinal data. The iterative algorithm converged robustly under various initial values for the unobserved elapsed durations of spells in progress at base-line. Results on life expectancy and recovery from functional limitations based on the semi-Markov process model differ from those based on the traditional multistate life-table method. The proposed treatment of left-censored spells has the potential to expand the modelling capability that is available to researchers in fields where left censoring is a concern.     

On a lottery pricing anomaly: Time tells the tale

This article identifies a lottery pricing anomaly, which I call the “r=x anomaly,” that is present in past pricing experiments—namely, a tendency for subjects to announce that their minimum selling price for some binary lottery is the greater of the two lottery prizes. The study shows that the anomaly is inconsistent with two theoretical explanations for another well-known pricing anomaly (preference reversal) and experimentally replicates these inconsistencies. The new experiment also measures the time subjects spend making their pricing decisions. These decision-time measurements suggest that ther=x anomaly may be a decision-cost effect.     

Assessing the Ability to Recognize Facial and Vocal Expressions of Emotion: Construction and Validation of the Emotion Recognition Index

Despite extensive research on emotional expression, there are few validated tests of individual differences in emotion recognition competence (generally considered as part of nonverbal sensitivity and emotional intelligence). This paper reports the development of a rapid test of emotion recognition ability, the Emotion Recognition Index (ERI), consisting of two subtests: one for facial and one for vocal emotion recognition. The rationale underlying the test’s construction, item selection, and analysis are described and a major validation study with more than 3,500 professional candidates, providing stable norms, is reported. Additional analyses concern differences for gender, age, and education, as well as correlations with cognitive intelligence and personality factors. Moreover, a separate validation study with a student sample reports the correlations of the ERI with some of the major published tests in this area, demonstrating satisfactory construct validity. Correlations between ERI scores and the position of candidates in the organizational hierarchy suggest that recognition competence might be might contribute to predicting career advancement.     

Personal Trauma and Risk Behaviors Among Youth Entering Residential Treatment

The focus of this study was to determine the prevalence and types of traumas experienced by adolescents prior to admission to long term mental health residential care and the impact of these traumas on their risk behaviors. The research was conducted at a state-supported residential mental health treatment facility functioning under the authority of the Department of State Health Services. Client level data was extracted from social assessment forms (N = 457) in case records of clients. Results confirmed that exposure to trauma was pervasive among adolescents admitted to the facility. Findings also revealed a link between trauma and risk behaviors among youth entering residential treatment facilities. Increased trauma exposure significantly impacted the risk behaviors of youths entering the residential treatment facility. The results indicate that the total number of traumas experienced was a greater predictor of risk behaviors among these youth than the specific traumas experienced. Internalizing behaviors such as self-harm and suicide attempts also increased with the number of traumas experienced by the adolescent. The study demonstrates the need for further exploration of the complex relationship between personal trauma, mental health, and social development in adolescents.